| A | B |
|---|
| Wilmot Proviso | an 1846 proposed law to prohibit slavery in newly acquired territory from Mexico; passed in the Senate but not in the House |
| Free Soil Party | a political party dedicated to stoppping the spread of slavery |
| Henry Clay | senator from Kentucky; known as the "great compromiser" for his role in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 |
| Daniel Webster | senator from Massachusetts who supported the Compromise of 1850 even though he opposed the Fugitive Slave Act in order to keep the country from war |
| The Compromise of 1850 | deal made in Congress to settle the dispute over California and newly acquired land of the Mexican Cession |
| the Fugitive Slave Act | federal law stating that Northerners had to aid in the capture of suspected runaway slaves; part of the Compromise of 1850 |
| Stephen A. Douglas | senator from Illinois, ran for the Presidency against Abraham Lincoln in 1860 as the Northern Democratic candidate |
| abolitionist | a person who worked to end slavery |
| Underground Railroad | a series of escape routes for slaves from the South to the North |
| Frederick Douglass | leading abolitionist, former slave who wrote his autobiography and donated profits to the Underground railroad; advised President Lincoln to issue Emancipation Proclamation |
| Harriet Tubman | escaped slave who became a leading "conductor" of the Underground Railroad |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe | abolitionist author who wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in order to show people the evils of slavery |
| "Uncle Tom's Cabin" | abolitionist novel about the evils of slavery |
| Popular sovereignty | the idea that the people in a given area should vote to decide if slavery should be allowed or not |
| Kansas-Nebraska Act | 1854 law which stated that popular sovereingty would be used to settle the slavery question in the Kansas and Nebraska territories |
| Bleeding Kansas | fighting which broke out in Kansas territory between pro and anti slavery mobs; over 300 people were killed; lasted for three years |
| John Wilkes Booth | man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln |
| Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution | amendment prohibiting slavery in the United States; passed in 1865 |
| Appomattox | site of Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S.Grant in April of 1865 |
| Gen William Tecumseh Sherman | Union general who led the army of the West to victory by waging "total war" against the South |
| "total war" | destroying everything that can be used to support the enemy (burning farms, killing livestock, destroying RR tracks, etc.) |
| Anaconda Plan | Union plan to "squeeze" the confederacy by blockading the coast and cutting off supplies to the Confederacy |
| Emancipation Proclamation | document issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863 stating that all slaves in condederate states would be set free |
| 54th Massachusetts Regiment | African-American unit of the Union army who was noted for bravery at the attack on Fort Wagner |
| Fort Sumter | first battle of the Civil War; fought in Charleston, SC in April 1861; Confederate victory |
| Battle of First Bull Run | fought in July 1861 in northern Virginia; Confederate win; Union forces retreated even though they outnumbered Confederates; showed the Union that the war would take longer than they thought |
| Battle of Gettysburg | fought in Gettysburg PA on July 1-3, 1863; victory for Union; turning point of the war |
| Thirteenth Amendment | constitutional amendment passed in 1865 prohibiting slavery in the United States |
| Republican Party | political party formed to prevent the further spread of slavery |
| secede | to withdraw from the Union |
| Confederate States of America | new nation formed by southern states after they seceded from the United States |
| ironclad | warship covered in iron |
| Gen. Ulysses S. Grant | Union General appointed commander of the Union Army in July 1863 |
| Gen. George McClellan | Union General who served as commander of the Union army for the first 2 years of the war; known for being hesitiant to attack |
| John Bell | presidential candidate from the Constitutional Union party in 1860 election; his platform was that the union should be preserved at all costs |
| John Breckenridge | presidential candidate for the southern Democratic party in the 1860 presidential election; his platform was that slavery should be allowed anywhere in the United States |
